REBUILDING DATA OF A STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20140365819A1
• Filed: 05/19/2014
• Published: 12/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cooper, Alastair, Hutchison, Gordon D.
• Application Number:
  US14/281,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20140365819A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1092 Rebuilding, e.g. when physically replacing a failing disk

Abstract

Proposed are concepts for rebuilding data in a data storage system. Embodiments rebuild data in order of priority as defined by a rebuild policy. Data rebuilding may therefore be undertaken so that important data is rebuilt before less important data for example. For instance, according to one embodiment, a method of rebuilding data in a data storage system includes: determining data to be rebuilt; identifying a plurality of data blocks, each data block comprising data to be rebuilt having a common characteristic; assigning a priority to each of the plurality of data blocks in accordance with a rebuild policy representing a priority to be assigned to a data block based on the common characteristic of its data; and rebuilding the data of each the plurality of data blocks in order of their assigned priority.

Claims

1. A method of rebuilding data in a data storage system, comprising:

determining data to be rebuilt;

identifying a plurality of data blocks, each data block comprising data to be rebuilt having a common characteristic;

assigning a priority to each of the plurality of data blocks in accordance with a rebuild policy representing a priority to be assigned to a data block based on the common characteristic of its data; and

rebuilding the data of each the plurality of data blocks in order of their assigned priority.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt relates to a configuration of resources of the data storage system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt includes at least one of:

a storage volume using the data to be rebuilt;

a host employing the data to be rebuilt; and

an application employing the data to be rebuilt.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein rebuilding the data of each of the plurality of data blocks comprises:

sorting the plurality of data blocks into an order of rebuilding based on their assigned priority; and

mapping the sorted plurality of data blocks to the data storage system in the order of rebuilding.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data storage system comprises a disk array having a Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive/Independent Disks, RAID, arrangement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input via a host of the data storage system; and

generating the rebuild policy based on the received input.

7. A computer program product for rebuilding data in a data storage system, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable and/or executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

determining data to be rebuilt;

identifying a plurality of data blocks, each data block comprising data to be rebuilt having a common characteristic;

assigning a priority to each of the plurality of data blocks in accordance with a rebuild policy representing a priority to be assigned to a data block based on the common characteristic of its data; and

rebuilding the data of each the plurality of data blocks in order of their assigned priority.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt relates to a configuration of resources of the data storage system.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt includes at least one of:

a storage volume using the data to be rebuilt;

a host employing the data to be rebuilt; and

an application employing the data to be rebuilt.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein rebuilding the data of each of the plurality of data blocks comprises:

sorting the plurality of data blocks into an order of rebuilding based on their assigned priority; and

mapping the sorted plurality of data blocks to the data storage system in the order of rebuilding.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the data storage system comprises a disk array having a Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive/Independent Disks, RAID, arrangement.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the method performed by the processor further comprises:

receiving an input via a host of the data storage system; and

generating the rebuild policy based on the received input.

13. A data storage system comprising:

a processor; and

logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to;

determine data to be rebuilt;

identify a plurality of data blocks, each data block comprising data to be rebuilt having a common characteristic;

assign a priority to each of the plurality of data blocks in accordance with a rebuild policy representing a priority to be assigned to a data block based on the common characteristic of its data; and

rebuild the data of each the plurality of data blocks in order of their assigned priority.

14. The data storage system of claim 13, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt relates to a configuration of resources of the data storage system.

15. The data storage system of claim 14, wherein the common characteristic of the data to be rebuilt includes at least one of:

a storage volume using the data to be rebuilt;

a host employing the data to be rebuilt; and

an application employing the data to be rebuilt.

16. The data storage system of claim 13, wherein the logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor is further configured to:

sort the plurality of data blocks into an order of rebuilding based on their assigned priority; and

map the sorted plurality of data blocks to the data storage system in the order of rebuilding.

17. The data storage system of claim 13, wherein the data storage system comprises a disk array having a RAID arrangement, and wherein the processor comprises a RAID controller.

18. The data storage system of claim 13, wherein the logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor is further configured to:

receive an input via a host of the data storage system; and

generate the rebuild policy based on the received input.